David Zaslavsky

David is a 2014 PhD graduate of the physics program at Penn State. His research, in computational particle physics, focused on the phenomenology of high-energy collisions. After completing his PhD, he spent two years continuing research as a postdoc at Central China Normal University in Wuhan before deciding to transition off the academic career path.

Given David's long-term interest in software development, it was a natural choice to move into the tech industry as a software engineer. He spent about five years working at SoundHound AI, a small tech company in the San Francisco Bay Area, developing the point-of-interest search feature of the Hound voice assistant. Since early 2023, he has moved on to software infrastructure support for Woven by Toyota, the software research and development institution for Toyota's prototype and experimental cars.

In his spare time, David enjoys reading (often sci-fi/fantasy or mystery novels), listening to podcasts, and traveling, and will sometimes step out to catch a game of ultimate frisbee. He also contributes to several open-source software projects and maintains an infrequently-updated personal website at www.ellipsix.net.

Tomotaroh "Tomy" Granzier-Nakajima

Tomotaroh "Tomy" Granzier-Nakajima graduated from Penn State in 2021 before transitioning into a career in science policy. After graduating he spent two years as the Energy & the Environment Fellow at MOST Policy Initiative where he worked directly with Missouri state legislators writing science briefs ranging from voter fraud to nuclear energy, providing informational testimony for upcoming legislation, and developing legislator relationships for MOST. After MOST he joined the United States Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Policy as an American Association for the Advancement of Science - Science & Technology Policy Fellow (AAAS STPF). At DOE he helps to provide technical guidance and works with the Internal Revenue Service and the White House to implement tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act and aids in long term policy analysis that may guide future policy that reduces greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, while at Penn State, he began working with a group of early career scientists to develop more opportunities for scientists to engage with policy making, and co-founded the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Science & Technology Policy Initiative (COPA-STEP). Discussions between COPA-STEP and Governor Shapiro’s administration in 2023 helped lead to the creation of the Governor’s Science and Technology Fellowship, an $80k, full-time fellowship for master’s degree holders and higher to work in the Pennsylvania Government Executive Branch (Applications for the inaugural cohort close 4/21). COPA-STEP also recently received a grant from the National Conference of State Legislatures to hire staff that will accelerate our ability to explore other ways to create more opportunities for scientists to get involved with public policy.